Life- its seriousness, absurdity and reality

schoolinirving

As you know about the war that is going on in Syria, which has prompted thousands of people to leave their country, in order to survive for their lives. Recently I came across an interview of a Syrian mother who is part of the many refugees stuck in the borders between Serbia and Hungary. These refugees who are on high-rise, are trying to reach Germany to start a new life but are being held back by the authorities in Hungary. “Anyone passing its borders illegally, is to face jail or sent back to their country”, are the orders from the Hungarian police. Consequently, for more than a week, they have been living, literally, in the middle of the road.

Ms. AlSayed, the Syrian mother, says that she has been travelling for 10 days with her 6 year old daughter, Alma, passing through Turkey and Greece. She, along with hundreds of other fugitives have a simple demand that they be allowed to pass through the Hungarian border, from where they can go to Germany where they see a bright future for themselves. Of course, that seems far away from happening.

In the interview, the mother makes an appeal to the authorities that if they (the Hungarian officials) don’t want to allow them to pass through its territory, she is ready to hand over her daughter to them on a condition that, that she will be sent to Germany or any other safer place. She says in a determined tone that for the sake of her child’s safety, she is ready to be separated from her. In her very own words, “Take my kid (pointing to her child) and put her in Germany or any other safer place.” She states that she doesn’t want a peaceful life for herself, as is her right to do so but for her daughter.

After watching her interview, it lead me thinking, “Where has humanity come down to? Since when people who are just like you and me, have had to demand for a life where they can have a guarantee that there isn’t going to be an explosion in the next hour or the next day? Has the world crumbled so much that the assurance of granting a war-free life has become something of an obscure? Where are the authorities now that label themselves as the so-called guardians of human rights?

I want to bring into the discussion now, an occurence that took place last week, in Irving, Texas, the Ahmed-clock incident. For those of you who don’t know about it, it went like this. A 14-year-old boy, Ahmed Mohamed went to school on Monday of the last week to show his teacher his experimental product, which he had made at home. Teacher upon seeing the product mistook it for a bomb. And as a result, the school officials notified the police and Ahmed was taken in to custody. He was interrogated for about one and a half hour before the police were convinced that it was a clock and not a bomb and he was discharged. The incident went viral in the media and many high profile people showed their support to Ahmed. Those prominent people included Mr. Obama, Mark Zuckerberg and Mrs. Clinton.

To be honest, I welcome Mr. Obama’s step of addressing the boy and praising him for his experimental product and inviting him to the white house. I also would like to praise Mr. Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and Mrs. Clinton here, who also showed their support to the 14-year-old kid. I think it was much needed for such esteemed people to show their encouragement to the boy and I hope they continue to do so in the future as well.

But I also have some questions here that I want to put forward. Why are we so quiet on a similar situation, wait a minute, calling it a similar situation would not be fair to the 14 millions of innocent kids who are suffering from wars and for years now, in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The war, which is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than a decade now and 5 years since it has started in Syria, millions and millions of children have suffered and who are still suffering to this very day. What is their fault for the miserable life that we have given to them? Sure they had nothing to do with the war, then why are they being tormented, tortured and brutalized every second of every minute and every minute of every hour and every hour of every day?

In the end, I just want to say this, “Lets unite in helping eradicate terrorism from its roots, lets join our hands in helping those millions of children who are living in misery, lets collaborate in helping those refugees who just wants to live in peace and has nothing to do with war, lets together, make a world where living in harmony is not something of an obscure, but a reality.